If you have ever caught yourself saying that there is “Too much going on, I feel overwhelmed”, then you are not in the best position to make decisions. There is a good chance that you are struggling with basic daily decisions, which may include the following:
- Selecting what to eat for breakfast
- Choosing an outfit
- Lunch selection
- Planning a route to work
- Grocery shopping
- House cleaning tasks
- Time management during the day
- Deciding on a movie
It is likely that the following is also true for you:
- Make mistakes with habitual decisions.
- Cannot make decisions, easily overwhelmed.
- Anxious about decision making, tendency to avoidance.
- Feels embarrassed about decision making/ fear of being judged.
- Quality of life is impaired by decision making ability.
- Goal Achievement is also impaired.
- Stress Levels is elevated, a sense of chronic frustration, anxiety and vulnerability.
- Productivity is less due to on going distractions.
- Safety and Risk is a concern, elevated amygdala activity limits cognition.
- Overall Life Satisfaction less than desired
Summary of current state and needs
The decision maker in The Daily Challenge is under constant stress. Due to a lack of knowledge about how the decision-making system works, they struggle to make changes and are stuck in old habits and patterns. Their decision-making system heavily relies on assumptions and past memories, leading to difficulty in accurately defining unmet needs and evaluating reality. This ongoing struggle to satisfy basic needs causes chronic strain and vulnerability.
The brain’s survival systems become dominant, inhibiting the ability to make decisions to change and making it difficult to thrive. The person wants to make progress with unmet needs but consistently reverts to old habits and patterns, feeling trapped and unable to make desired changes. Without significant learning and the introduction of decision-making tools, this chronic frustration and low performance will likely continue.
Goals of learning to make better decision include:
- Minimize the time that it takes to learn how to make faster daily decisions
- Minimize the errors in decision making for more accurate daily decisions
- Minimize the complexity of daily decision making to reduce cognitive stress
- Minimize the time that it takes to make more than one daily decision
- Minimize the emotional strain of daily decision making
- Minimize the time it takes to achieve daily goals
- Minimize the time that it takes to improve daily productivity through decision making
- Minimize the feelings of vulnerability
- Minimize the cost of improving overall life satisfaction by limiting waste of time and resources
- Minimize the time it takes to identify a struggling moment and what to do next
The overall goal for this decision maker category is to make better daily decisions and then identify but do not try to make deliberate decisions. By simplifying their daily decisions and provide structure to their need fulfillment, Up-regulation is more likely to be successful and the likelihood of down regulation is minimized.
Learning and Performance Plan
Our course From Daily Challenged to Daily Decider present the novice with Deliberate Decision Making curriculum to improve daily decisions and prepare for development of skill in deliberate decision making, by reducing overall strain on the system and allow for Up-regulation.
- Understand the connection between need fulfillment and decision making
- Recognize the daily habits and solutions employed
- Recognize the Automatic system benefits
- Recognize the two types of decisions – Habitual and Catalyst
- Recognize the Struggling Moment
- Recognize Up-Regulation
- Recognize The Deliberate Pathway Steps
- Recognize causes of Down-regulation
- Recognize the Behaviors of the Automatic System
Tools and Resources To Learn Faster
Our proprietary decision making tools not only support making decisions now, but also support learning the best way to support the inherent decision making systems, resulting in ongoing improvement in decision making over time.
- Understand how to the use the Weekly Needs Assessment
- Understand how to the use the Struggling Moment Worksheet
- Understand the use of QuickSteps and when to use it
- Understand the DIY DDM and when to use it
- Understand the purpose of the 20 Minute Decision
- Understand the benefits of the Group Mentoring for DDM Pathway
Continue to explore the website and Your Personal Account to learn more about the following Deliberate Decision Making offerings:
- Free Member Learning
- 1st, 2nd, 3rd , 4th presentations
- Weekly Needs Assessment
- Struggling Moment Worksheet
- Articles and Examples of Decision Making
- Courses – From Daily Challenged to Daily Decider
- Making Better Decisions – A 90 Minute Useful eBook
- QuickSteps – Course and Online Tool
- Core DDM and Workbook
- Age Related Learning and Workbook if applicable
- 20 Minute Decision for Big Decision that are time sensitive
- Group Mentoring of DDM Pathway
Click Here to begin the Learning Pathway – Daily Decision Struggling to Daily Decider